apart in his talons, Nesryn fired at the
commander.
She didn’t see if the shot landed.
Not as a horn cut through the din.
A cry rose from the rukhin, all glancing
eastward. Toward the sea.
To where the Darghan cavalry and foot
soldiers charged for the unprotected eastern
flank of Morath’s army, Hasar atop her
Muniqi horse, leading the khagan’s host
herself.
Two armies clashed on the plain outside an
ancient city, one dark and one golden.
They fought, brutal and bloody, for the
long hours of the gray day.
Morath’s armies didn’t break, though. And
no matter how Nesryn and the rukhin, led by
Sartaq and Hasar’s orders, rallied behind their
fresh troops, the Valg kept fighting.